Apple's retail locations in Japan have begun sales of the "Fukubukuro", also known as a "lucky bag", which offer an assortment of products at a steep discount. Japanese blog Mac Otakara (Google Translate) was present at the Apple Store in Nagoya to discover the exact content of the various bags among customers, with some shoppers receiving big-ticket items like iPads and MacBooks.

This year's lucky bags sell for 36,000 yen ($300) and come in four different configurations, with common items including an Apple TV, a 4000 mAh Mophie Powerstation external battery pack, an Incase Icon backpack, an iTunes gift card, and Beats by Dre Powerbeats2 wireless earbuds. For the most valuable Fukubukuro bag, Apple included an 11-inch MacBook Air with a Power Support Air Jacket and a Twelve South PlugBug dual charger along with the common items.

Other variants of the bag offer a fifth-generation 16GB iPod touch, a 16GB iPad mini 3 or a 16GB iPad Air 2 alongside the common items. The iPad lucky bags also feature Logitech's UE Boom portable speaker.

Apple's grab bags are sold as is, and returns are not allowed unless a product is defective. The promotion is limited to Apple Stores in Japan, although they are usually met with long lines of shoppers hoping to purchase their own lucky bag.

Top Rated Comments

It has been said in other threads on this topic that this is not gambling, there is more in the bag than what you pay for, you don't lose any money on it.

Dutch, tell me more about it, I am dutch, never heard of this

The problem is, in the USA, if one guy figures out he got less than another guy, then the first guy will sue.

Years ago Apple used hard drives in some Macs that had roughly the same capacity but not identical. Like buying an MBA with 250GB hard drive, and some have 250GB, some have 255, some have 260. Apple was forced to format all the drives to report identical capacity to avoid legal trouble.

I currently live in Japan for business and the U.S. Sees this type of thing as investing to gain, looking for a good deal. The Japanese do not necessarily see it that way, but do this to enjoy the experience of winning something more so then just paying less to receive more as the U.S. Mentality generally operates.

I see this in Japanese malls. They receive tickets after shopping to possibly win something. They wait in long lines to spin a wheel. They win just toliet paper or a box of tissues. They are content with it and enjoy the thrill of just winning something.

This is why it will not work in the U.S. Apple is tired of lawsuits and people complaining that if they did not gain more than what they paid, complain or sue. Sorry this is the truth and will not work in the U.S.

Key concept: Not every bag is loaded with contents with values > $300. The word "lucky" should give this away but some of the whining here appears to imply that some of us believe that EVERY bag delivers stuff worth more than $300. That's not what this is about.

Along with the lucky or fortunate bags that do contain goods worth >$300, there are also what is known as "misfortune bags" (fukōbukuro) and "depressing bags" (utsubukuro). Like higher-priced lottery scratch-off games here, some do get lucky and get more than what they spend to play. However, others spend the same $300 and end up with the misfortune or depressing bags.

This event is about clearing out inventory- often unwanted, excess or discontinued merchandise- not about putting latest & greatest products in lots of customers hands at steep discounts. It's just another hook to get people into stores and try to sell them other things. It's popular in Japan because of a superstition about not starting a new year with unwanted trash from the previous year (thus put the unwanted trash in a mystery bag and sell it to hopeful consumers). In the U.S., we have flea markets & garage sales where we can actually see the trash we're buying and/or sight unseen abandoned storage shed auctions and similar. Occasionally there's press coverage of the guy who buys a Picasso for cheap at a garage sale or a storage shed auction where the contents were worth many times the purchase price. But the rest of such purchases (the vast majority of them) are probably fukō or utsu too.

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